Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg at:

Maverick ET73 Accuracy?

How close does the ET73 read to the dome termometer? I calibrated the dome probe and it was spot on. I also threw the ET73 pit probe in the water at the same time, it was also spot on at 210*F. However now that I am doing my first smoke the pit probe is reading 30*F higher than the dome probe. I have the pit probe cliped to the dome probe.

Dome is holding a steady 250*F, ET73 has been reading between 276 and 280.

your pit probe will read higher than the dome thermo, last night for the h*ll of it while I was baking some potatoes I put in a remote reading thermo and while the dome was around 380 the pit probe was 402. so your results are about right, the probe is closer to the fire, it will read hotter

That is what I thought as well. When I first had it set up the pit probe was clipped to the grate and reading ~30* higher. Since all this is new to me I decided to move the pit probe to the same spot as the dome probe and see if it would be more accurate, it isn't. I am trying to decide which one to go by, the BGE dome probe or the ET73 pit probe that is clipped to the dome probe.

Ahhhh, this just serves as a reminder why all three of my Eggs are equipped with Tel-Tru thermometers.

Are you implying that 1) the BGE dial is innaccurate? 2) the ET73 is innaccurate? 3) both?

From reading this forum over the last few weeks I was under the impression that as long as the BGE dial was calibrated it could be counted on as being close enough. Are the Tel-Trus measurably better? If they are is there any particular model I should look for? I saw some Tel-Tru thermometers at target but didn't pay any real attention to them.

The 6# butt that I have been cooking all day seems to be cooking "fast", closer to 1hr per pound than 2hrs per, so I am leaning toward the ET73 being more accurate.

For $h!ts and giggles I dropped another digital food probe I have through the daisy wheel, when the BGE was reading 250, the ET73 was reading 280 and the third was reading 300!

I appreciate any and all input. I am new to the BGE world and lump charcoal. My previous experience involves gas grills and a home built digitally controlled flower pot smoker Having to think about temperature control is a foreign concept.

One more thing. Butts are quite forgiving. A few times I thought I had a temp too high or too low(I worry about things too much, so I ended up buying a Digi-QII), but the end product was good. I'm sure yours will turn out fine.

I know butts are forgiving in general but this is the first cook I've had time to mess with temp readings. The only other things I've cooked so far were a DiGiorno pizza, some chicken breasts and a spatchcocked chicken. The pizza was good but a little too crispy and the Spatchcocked chicken was done much sooner than expected. Up until today everything was cooked using just the BGE dial, which, evidence suggests is reading a little low.

We build temperature control systems at work. I think I'll set all my probes up on the test bench at different temperatures and see what plays out.

FWIW, I slow cooked turkey breasts yesterday and was looking for 175-180* as pull temps. I had my ET-73 in the breast and when it hit 175*, I checked the breast with my thermapen and it read 167*. I have always considered the thermapen as the final word, but can't explain the difference in the two temp readings. I saw the same delta on all the breasts, four total. ????

I do not understand what you man by "space between the food and the probe." I had my butts on an inverted v-rack sitting on the grid. Just to the left of the rack was the probe clipped to the grid at grid level. Becasue of the v-rack it was actually below the meat.

Next time I am going to clip it to the dome thermometer where hopefully the readings should be the same.

On this cook I used my DigiQII and when I do use the q2 I always use the Maverick.

You will see the q2 food probe and the pit probe of the q2 hooked on the food probe and the probe below is the Maverick pit probe. The Maverick Pit probe is a little ways away from the brisket as I don't want the cook meat affecting the probe reading.

I am using Maverick 73 for first time today on Boston Butt cook. The probe is clipped to the grill and is useless.

Initially it read higher than the dome temp. Now it is 40 degress less than the dome temp and teh variance does not remain consistent.

I still have to go look at the dome temp to see the real temp and how I have been used to cooking.

Next time I will clip the Maverick probe to the dome probe.

The grid level being 40 degrees less than the dome is not unusual at all. I find the difference anywhere between 25 degrees and 70 degrees. It varies throughout the cook. If you've tested your ET-73 and know it's accurate, trust the grid level, not the dome.

Well I wasn't able to use the "real" bench but I was able to set up a small experiment using a heated water circulator and a calibrated Fluke temperature probe.

I tested all the probes at ambient ~85*F today (30*C), 100*F (~40*C), 120*F (~50*C), 140*F (~60*C), and 160*F (~70*C). I stopped at 160*F because of the plastic water tank I was using and I had already tested them at 210*F on the stove at home.

Long Story short, at 160*F all were within one or two degrees of each other except the ET73 food probe was +3.1